Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ares waited three full days before approaching General Tanzanite for questioning. At first, it had been out of utter necessity. Excitement radiated so much in her fingertips that she had trouble holding her pen straight. Each move that the Blood Moon Court made had been calculated and rehearsed, but even Ares was surprised at the sheer numbers that they had managed to capture: Tanzanite, Uranophane, Wolframite, Dioptase, and two lieutenants to boot.

Her nerves were vibrating, bubbling near the surface, and that would not do. The Senshi of Smoke knew that she needed to be of sound mind and body when she faced Tanzanite for the first time. She sat at her desk day in and day out, missing classes, missing calls. If it weren't for the compliance of her mother, there was no doubt a Missing Persons Report would have been filed. But it was all necessary. Ares was getting to know her enemy. She was sleeping in the same room, staring at her in silence.

In three days, Ares had only said one thing to Tanzanite. It was as she locked the last set of reinforced chains around her drugged and limp body. The senshi paused, lips nearly brushing Tanzanite's ear as she whispered lowly, "You're mine." Since that first night, it had been complete radio silence.

Until now.

When Tanzanite came to from her previous night's cocktail of chloroform and sleeping pills, she saw Super Sailor Ares sitting across from her. The desk that was normally on the far wall had been cleared of its papers and moved two feet in front of Tanzanite. Ares sat there, fork in one hand, knife in the other, and a full spread of food covering the table: rosemary garlic potatoes, an entire rotisserie chicken, a fresh vegetable medley, fresh cut strawberries with cream, and a home-made chocolate cappuccino cake. A large pitcher of water sat next to a tall glass.

Ares waited until Tanzanite looked at her and then began to pour water into her glass with excruciating slowness. It had been three days since Tanzanite had anything to eat or drink, though Ares suspected she could go longer. This was just time to test the waters.

Fork and knife squeaked over the plate. It seemed like fine china -- a hint at her identity, perhaps? It was hard to say. Everything on the table could be a weapon, even the small pillar candle resting on a glossy mirror base. All of these things could do considerable damage, but Tanzanite was helpless to reach them. And Ares, it seemed, had only food on her mind.

Gray eyes flashed up to Tanzanite and then moved back to her plate. She took a bite of chicken, a sip of water. Her eyes flashed to Tanzanite again. Then she resumed her eating in silence.

After speaking so much to Tanzanite, Ares had expected her broken voice to have less of a bone-chilling effect. She was wrong. It still rattled in her bones with just as much foreboding. It reminded her of scary stories she had been told as a child under the covers with her father, back when he still cared enough to read her stories. It was strange, then, to have a positive memory of her life compared to this one. Such was her life -- a pastiche of dark and light.

The fork dove into another piece of chicken. Ares lifted it to her mouth. There was a wet smack as Tanzanite's bloody mucus splashed against the side of the still-smoking meat. The senshi paused, stared at the spot. "Rude," she said curtly. She raised the knife and cut a large hunk of stained chicken free, flicking it at Tanzanite. It landed on her bare foot.

Ares was confused. She knew Tanzanite to be tough, obviously, but she wasn't even phased remotely by the presence of food and water. The other prisoners had at least shown a physiological response, even if they denied all offers and refused to admit their thirst and hunger. Tanzanite seemed entirely disinterested. Was she really so strong? Was she able to subsist without any nourishment? Ares had never seen anything like it.

The senshi pushed her plate toward the edge of the table, pulling out a clipboard stacked with papers. The knife and fork were pointed handle-first toward Tanzanite about two feet away. She cleared her throat and clicked the pen. "How many General Kings and Queens does the Negaverse have?" Ares touched the tip of her pen to the paper and waited.

At first, Ares began to write. She scribbled down a neat 'seven' and was halfway through transcribing the first name when she realized was Tanzanite was doing. Gray eyes flicked up to the Nega's. She noted the brief amusement there, but her own expression remained impassive. One hand reached out to grip her glass of water. She took a long, thoughtful sip.

Laurelite was the only GQ name that Ares knew. She had heard of Charonite too, but he had not been seen in months and was presumed dead. But there had to be more. The senshi just wanted to know how many more. What were they up against?

The glass clinked against the wooden table. Ares picked her pen back up. "What is the source of youma creation?" Again, she poised the tip of the pen to paper.

Ares scrawled down what Tanzanite said. This confirmed some of the reports from others, rumors, word of mouth. Apparently the purple-haired General was capable of telling the truth. Gray eyes dropped to the monstrous youma arm. The senshi was curious about it, but she would never want her body to be so polluted, not like that.

The arm had posed more problems than Ares had expected. The current case to contain it was Plan Z, all of the others had proved futile. But it was fine. Ares could be patient.

"Where is General-King Charonite?" she said flatly. Rumor was that he was dead. Ares hoped to confirm it for their own records. "And how were you recruited into the Negaverse?"

The last question didn't seem to fit with the others. It was strangely personal. Ares didn't react to the change in her logic. She simply waited as she had before, pen held high and lips pursed, for the answer to come.

Ares stopped writing, put her pen aside. She got to her feet, walked around the length of her desk. "And are you fixed now?" A thigh brushed against the smooth wood. She allowed herself to lean against it, ignoring the mountain of food just as Tanzanite had. Was the Negaverse agent a master at disguising her need for sustenance or was she truly disinterested in the food and water? It was a curious thing to Ares. She just didn't know what to make of it yet.

As if she hadn't asked the first question, the senshi breezed right on to the next: "How was Beryl able to corrupt Endymion?" Ares still wasn't sure what the Prince was doing, or why he opposed the senshi. She could only assume that he had turned against them. No friend of the senshi would throw Chronos to Tanzanite. Ares knew that much -- and hell, she was willing to make a lot of sacrifices under other circumstances -- but even she would not do that.

There was simply no point to it. Chronos' death would only weaken the senshi, even if Ares considered the Princess too slow to act and unworthy of the excellent magical powers she had been blessed with in this existence. Ares could only see her own Princess form through the mirror of the past. Without Nehelenia here, the senshi was forced to accept the stark reality that ascending to that level of the power in the White Moon Kingdom would likely be impossible for her. It made her bitter, and more importantly, it made her jealous.

Good thing she had Negas to help exercise that rage out of her.

When Tanzanite spit, Ares took a step backward. Spit was gross, whether she was in civilian form or not. If it could be easily avoided, then she would do it. "Endymion is despicable. He is made of the sorriest stock," she said, shaking her head. "If you could only have seen him back before, back when he trailed at Serenity's heels? I have never understood the White Moon definitions of what a 'leader' is. To them, the pink-haired child is fit to lead. A man who throws flowers as his battle cry is a warrior. To them, a Princess who was more likely to cry than fight is a champion." And yet Serenity had beaten Nehelenia.

The thought still bothered Ares. She had lied to herself for centuries, claimed that some other magic had been afoot. Quietly, she still preferred to believe that Chaos had abandoned Nehelenia in the final battle, and that her loss had been due more to uneven ammunition than anything else. If she had marched against Serenity with the full ranks of the parallel senshi? Well, perhaps this world would look very different nowadays. Perhaps this entire struggle might have been avoided.

Ares scoffed. "My Queen once tricked them," it was evident Ares was having a hard time keeping laughter from her voice, "into thinking Endymion and Serenity were corpses. You should have seen their faces, all of them tear-streaked and trembling. So gullible, always so gullible." A hand gripped the edge of her desk still steaming with the meal she had prepared to entice Tanzanite, a meal that the general seemed absolutely indifferent to.

Wait. No, this was wrong. The way that they were speaking. The way that Ares was regarding Tanzanite. In this moment, they spoke like comrades, not captor and captive. It was true that Ares respected Tanzanite, even if she would not admit as much. After all the centuries, the Senshi of Smoke had never met a more formidable foe -- not in the Black Moon, and not here in Destiny City now. That respect could not be allowed to blossom. Ares was not Tanzanite's comrade; she was the bringer of her death.

The senshi straightened suddenly, any trace of ease wiping itself from her features. "I see that your monstrous arm did not respond well to Chronos' crown," she said, tilting her head to one side. "Cut through it like tissue paper." Ares waited. She wanted to see Tanzanite's reaction.

Ares prickled at Tanzanite's laughter. It was only there first formal meeting of interrogation, and already, the parallel senshi had made a mistake. She had shown her hand, if only in a small way. Tanzanite maintained the same calm, biting demeanor that she had held since capture. A tiny flash of warmth spread in Ares' chest. She thought, And we will break her of it.

When Tanzanite continued to insult the members of the Blood Moon, Ares only sighed -- but it was when she spoke of Nehelenia that things changed. The senshi flashed forward, the glint of metal in her hand. With a grunt, she slammed the serrated blade of her dinner knife into the soft flesh between Tanzanite's human arm and collarbone.

One hand yanked a fistful of the General's hair, tugging her head to the side to keep her from biting in such close quarters. "You can pretend all you want to know anything about Queen Nehelenia and the sacrifices that she made for both my existence and that of your precious Earth -- but you know nothing." Ares twisted the blade. "She is no longer on Earth because she used her own life to keep it from destruction because of the actions of Wiseman, a cohort of your Beryl. Instead of attempting to curse her name, you should instead thank her. If not for her, then you and me and everyone here on this planet would surely be dead."

Her arm tensed, and she tossed Tanzanite's head fiercely to the side. Ares stepped back and ripped the knife free. She crossed back to the table and lifted a white napkin. Slowly, evenly, she cleaned the blade until she found herself able to breathe calmly once more.